There’s Something Wrong With The End Of The Kids – Trickster Bugs And The Perils Of Parenthood

Something’s wrong with the kids wants you to question your perspective. Can you trust what you see and think? Upward angles, Dutch angles and rotating frames attack you as you try to figure out what’s happening in the latest Blumhouse movie available everywhere on MGM+ and VOD. Something is very wrong, and it has nothing to do with too much sugar and too little discipline. Instead, this predictable but still creepy film manages to blaze new trails in the cabin in the woods/creepy kid space. Here’s everything you need to know.

Young couple Ben (Zach Gilford) and Margaret (Alisha Wainwright) have gone to a cabin in the woods with their friends Ellie (Amanda Crew), Thomas (Carlos Santos) and their two children. Margaret would rather have children of her own sooner than later. Ben has concerns based on mental health issues, and what happens in There’s Something Wrong With The Children doesn’t help the case. Almost immediately tension arises in the group. Margaret and Ben see their divergent paths, and Ellie and Thomas try to shake off the aftermath of a fateful foursome. The group goes for a walk and finds some ruins with a deep hole. Intrigued by the hole, the kids start acting strange long before things take a decidedly weird turn.

That night, Ben and Margaret agree to keep the kids so Ellie and Thomas can rekindle the romance. The kids act strange, but nothing warrants calling their parents until they go missing the next morning. Ben tracks them down to the ruins and watches as they willingly fall into the hole. Ben returns to the house to tell Margaret and finds the children alive and well. In disbelief but hoping for the best, his worst fears come true when the kids start behaving strangely and later very aggressively. What will happen to the children, and are they still children?

We’ve seen movies like this before, and while writers TJ Cimfel and David White introduce an interesting second half of the explanation, nothing is very surprising. The kids aren’t themselves and they’re trying to kill everyone. Why they do it is the fresh angle. In the last act it becomes clear what went in the hole, not what came out. These children are no longer human. Whatever is in the hole took the original children and replaced them with imposters bent on death and domination.

Lucy is the first to speak out what happened to them. She tells Ben that they ate bugs and they are different now. Later, Spencer, in a delightfully menacing manner, fakes his own death to further isolate the group. The kids can sink their teeth into their new role while the four adults are broken. Like a parasite that invades and takes over the host, these children are now insectile. Finally, in the shadows, we see what Lucy really looks like. It is a giant grasshopper or praying mantis-type creature that is much stronger and more murderous than the human children they replaced.

On a planet where humans are grossly outnumbered. At nearly 200 million to one, they have the numbers. New insects are constantly being discovered. Would it be so far-fetched to think that someone could duplicate us? Similar to 1997’s Mimic, but more effectively, these bugs have evolved the ability to lure humans to their nests, infiltrate their brains, replicate them, and feast on their dead bodies. Finally, they release the new creations into the world to infect more people.

It is an economic life cycle that many known insects use. Many animals and insects can camouflage themselves. Usually this is done to protect themselves from predators, but the cuckoos do it to invade nests and take over resources. They drop eggs into other birds’ nests and wait for them to hatch. Cuckoos usually hatch for the eggs that are right in the nest and kick everyone else out, effectively killing them. It’s a cruel little trick that is very effective. There are also a handful of insects that cannibalize each other. The young are allowed to eat their mother’s meat. It’s a cruel little humiliation that would make anyone think twice about having kids.

By the time the movie reaches its climax, you’ll know all there is to know. Ben was right. Something is wrong with the children. These new versions of the kids are deadly. They attack their parents and chase after Margaret. Meanwhile, Ben returns to the hole and is sucked into the same madness as the kids. He also returns changed, and even a machete to the neck has no effect on him for long. The kids and Ben try to kill Margaret, and she is able to drive off, but that’s not the end of it. The trio of Ben, Spencer, and Lucy can’t be killed that easily, and their insect wings allow them to get to most places quickly.

At the last moments, the three join hands and Maragaret starts the engine. What happens after the movie ends? We do not know. We know that at least the girl has wings like a grasshopper, so presumably the trio standing in front of Margaret in the street as she tries to drive away can fly over the car. But on the other hand, they may now also have the pulling power of many insects, and with folded hands, the truck will crash into them and kill Margaret.

Something’s Wrong With the Kids plays on our fear of becoming parents and creepy kids. Not everyone is cut out to be a parent, and if your son and daughter start acting like freaks, I can’t say I blame anyone for choosing to give up that life. Where The Prodigy had the supernatural angle, The Innocents a more realistic approach, and Nicole Kidman’s Birth delves into the emotionality of death and taboo, Blumhouse’s film dives headlong into creepy-crawling body-snatcher territory. It’s not a home run, as the kids far outnumber the adults, but if you’re a fan of murderous kids with enigmatic smiles, you could do worse.